Now what?
by Zerodone
Summary: Preventing Phoenix Wright from losing his badge was easy. The real issue I have is, how the fuck do I get home? And how the fuck do I prevent Gavin from killing me? Anyone got DeKiller's number?


"And, in a way, we're all time travelers. Somehow, the entire temporal stream exists, but we're only conscious of a single moment."

― Jack McDevitt, Time Travelers Never Die

"To awaken quite alone in a strange parallel universe is the priceless moment to a time traveler!"

― Vishwanath S J

April 19, 9:00 AM

District Court

Defendant Lobby No. 2

Phoenix ran a hand through his hair, feeling a little nervous. It had been some time since he had felt this nervous right before a trial and the reason for that was quite simple: he was severely underprepared for today's proceedings. The fault for the lack of readiness didn't lie within him, however. It was because of a case of substitution of attorneys, a last-minute substitution one might add, that resulted in Phoenix have no time to investigate this case properly. Or investigate at all for that matter.

The man in the blue suit fell on the couch in the lobby and took a look at the few documents he had available to prepare himself for the proceedings. Nevertheless, he accepted the case, mostly out of his goodwill, but partially because he really could use the money.

As he sat there reading the file in his hands, he could hear the door to the defendant lobby opening. At first, he expected for his client to step into the room, but when he looked up, he didn't see the man he was going to defend today, but instead someone else entering the lobby. It was a young man, younger than him with black hair, wearing a pair of brown colored glasses and a disgruntled look on his face. The man wore an orange jacket with the zipper open, revealing a light blue vest underneath. The zipper of that was open too and showed that he was wearing a simple black t-shirt. Else the man wore light blue jeans and some blue and red sports shoes.

"Goddamnit," the man complained, taking off his glasses. "Why am I wearing auto-coloring glasses again?" he asked aloud, looking down on them. Phoenix cleared his throat at this moment, getting the attention of the man who just entered. The man looked up in surprise for a moment, before speaking again.

"Oh, hey Mister Wright! Sorry about being so grumpy, but traffic was a pain in the ass again."

Phoenix shook his head in slight amusement. "That's why I keep telling you to get yourself a bike. It's easier to get through the city that way."

"Yeah, yeah," the man rolled his eyes and put his glasses back on. "I'm not exactly swimming in money at the moment, you know. I do have to pay rent and everything."

Phoenix smiled at those words. "And with everything, you mean the unhealthy amount of cola you drink every single day."

The man pouted and looked away, while at the same time produced a can with the previously named drink out of his orange jacket. "It's still better than alcohol addiction," he mumbled, opened the can and drank a large sip out of it. Phoenix had to suppress a laugh, seeing as he was once again proven right.

(My name is Phoenix Wright. I am a defense attorney and currently waiting for my client to arrive. The man in front of me is my new secretary. His name is Sebastian Iwanow and so far, he has been a great help around the office. He's been working for a couple of months for me and usually, he stays at the office, whenever there is a trial going on. However, this time…)

"Say, you were awfully insistent on coming to the trial today," Mr. Wright spoke up. The now dubbed Sebastian put his can down, but still looked to the side.

"Well… no offense, Mr. Wright, but being cooped up in the office each and every day has even made me a little antsy," Sebastian told his boss. "And given that usually there's not much going on, I thought it would be no problem observing a trial for once. See how you work, you know."

"Hmm, alright," Phoenix shrugged, seeing the point his secretary was making. There was not much going on in his office, not even on a busy day. Most of the time he had found his secretary reading his old files or some law books. And half the time Sebastian worked, he was cleaning the office, while the TV was turned on. And Phoenix was the one sitting on the couch and watching TV during those times.

"Speaking of the trial," Sebastian looked directly at Phoenix again, "isn't it a little bit shady?"

"Shady?" Phoenix repeated, confused. "What do you mean?"

Sebastian frowned and put his hands into his jacket pockets. "Well for starters, the substitution of attorneys. Nobody with half a brain does that in the last possible moment. By the way, I finally got an answer this morning for our request to push the trial a few days back. As you might guess…" Sebastian trailed off.

"They didn't agree, did they?" Phoenix asked.

"I guess they had everything prepared and they didn't want to throw those preparations out of the window so to speak." He took his hands out of the pockets and let out a sigh. "I thought it was worth a shot. Frankly, I'm surprised they wrote back at all."

"Thanks for trying anyway." Phoenix nodded in appreciation. "We'll just have to roll with the punches today and hope to extend the trial for another day," the attorney told his secretary.

"You know, with a system so rigged, it's a miracle you won every single case. Well, except for that one with...er… you know…"

It took Phoenix a second to realize what his secretary was talking about. He was talking about the case where he had been forced to defend a guilty man or else his legal assistant Maya would have been killed. His face hardened for a couple of seconds, but then he shook his head, getting rid of the bad memories.

(It figures he'd know about this case. He's been reading about every single case I ever worked on. I guess I should lock away the more sensitive case files.)

It was then that Phoenix noticed something sticking out of his secretary's jacket. It was a piece of paper that looked like it had been quickly folded together and put inside, without much thought having been put into it.

"Hey, what's this?" the attorney asked, pointing at the offending white sheet.

Sebastian looked down to the side and gasped. "Crap!" he cursed and quickly shoved the paper deeper into his pocket so no one could see it anymore.

"T-thanks for that, boss," Sebastian replied quickly, looking slightly nervous. "Haha, I would have been a goner if I'd lost that."

"Oh, why is that?" Phoenix asked, intrigued by the sudden nervousness of his employee.

"W-w-well," the younger man scratched the back of his head while looking to the ground. "It's probably my grocery list. Almost left it in the taxi…"

"It's "probably" your grocery list?" Phoenix repeated.

Sebastian laughed sheepishly before answering. "Yeah, I tend to carry a lot of papers in my pockets. Nothing related to the office!" He added hastily before his boss could get angry. "Just personal stuff, like memos, addresses and the such. Here, take a look." Sebastian produced a small piece of paper out of the other pocket. Phoenix took the paper and noted how worn out it felt. When he took a closer look at it, he could see that there was an address written on the paper. A very familiar address to be precise.

"Hey wait. That's the address to my office!" The attorney realized.

"Yup." Sebastian nodded. "I wrote that note down, after my initial phone call for a job interview. I kept it for the first couple of months since I'm terrible at remembering these things. Though, I don't really need it anymore." Sebastian shrugged. "I must have forgotten to throw it away after I finally got the address into my head."

(I wonder what else he's keeping in his pockets?)

Phoenix gave the paper back to his secretary, who threw the thing into a trash can, as well as the empty cola can. When he returned to his boss, he looked over to the door from where he came in. "Where's the client, anyway? I thought for sure I would be the last one to arrive."

"Well, there's still an hour until the trial begins," Phoenix pointed out. "It sometimes takes a little while for the police to bring our clients from the detention center. But usually, they arrive around half an hour before the trial begins."

"Huh, I see." Sebastian took a look at his watch and let out a small groan. "50 minutes to go. Gotta kill time somehow." The young man took out his cell phone and placed himself on the couch, right next to Mr. Wright. The lawyer could see from the corner of his eye that his secretary was playing some game. Leaving him to his devices, Phoenix returned to reading the case file.

The two remained like this for until finally, Mr. Wright's client arrived shortly before half-past nine. Both lawyer and secretary looked up to see a man in a magician's outfit entering the room, escorted by a bailiff. The man himself had slightly brown skin, a reddish cloak, buttoned with a blue ace of diamonds. Incidentally, his cloak ended in triangle tips which had all the four aces in a card game displayed in blue on a white background. He also wore a top-hat in the primary color of his cloak. Underneath the cloak, he wore a red bow tie, some purple clothing, held together by white strings, pants in the same purple color and white boots. Plus, he also wore white gloves and had a brown belt on, held together in the middle by a silver medal-like thing with a "Z" engraved in it.

"Ah, good morning, Mr. Enigmar." Phoenix stood up and shook his client's hand. Sebastian followed but stayed a little behind.

"I'm… sorry to have sprung this on you so suddenly," the magician apologized without even greeting back. But he at least shook hands with his lawyer.

"I received the files from your previous attorney only yesterday. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'm prepared."

Mr. Enigmar bowed his head slightly. "I understand I am asking the impossible of you."

"Yes, well, you haven't really told me what happened yet! All we did… was play cards."

Mr. Enigmar nodded. "And that was enough."

Phoenix looked flabbergasted at his client. (Actually, it wasn't. Trust me.)

It was then that Mr. Enigmar noticed the other person in the room.

"Ah, hello. I believe we haven't met." Sebastian stepped up from behind his boss and shook hands with the magician too.

"Sebastian Iwanow. We talked on the phone when you asked for Mr. Wright to represent you."

"Ah yes, now I remember. I have been wondering about your name. Are you from Russia perhaps?" the magician asked.

"Mom's from Russia and dad's from Germany. I lived in Germany before going to America. And before you ask, I never bothered to learn Russian. Too hard."

"Hm, I see. That's too bad. Russian is quite the beautiful language."

"I think they scream way too much," Sebastian argued. "Trust me, you don't wanna hear my mom when she's on the phone."

Any further talk was interrupted when the door opened once again. A little girl, wearing a very similar outfit to Mr. Enigmar bounced into the room, a happy smile on her face.

"Ooh! Morning, Daddy!" she shouted, hugging her father, the client in this case.

"Ah, I'm so glad you came." Mr. Enigmar hugged his daughter back.

"You OK, Daddy? They picking on you?"

Sebastian couldn't suppress the laughter escaping his lungs. "Picking on him?" he asked, amused. Mr. Enigmar shared the secretary's enthusiasm, laughing very loud.

"I am fine, as always," Enigmar assured his daughter, after catching his breath. "This old boy is here to help me, after all." The magician nodded in Mr. Wright's direction.

(That's "young man" to you.)

"I'm pretty sure you're older," Sebastian said to the magician.

Ignoring the earlier comment, Mr. Wright turned towards the girl in the magician's outfit. "Good morning. That's a cute outfit you have on."

"Thanks! My first show's today, after all!" the girl proclaimed proudly.

"Oh, I'm sure it is!" (What the heck is she talking about?) Mr. Wright wondered to himself.

"First show?" Sebastian repeated thoughtfully, before turning towards Mr. Enigmar. "I don't claim to know how show business works, but isn't she a bit young to be performing in a magic show?"

"Hahaha!" Mr. Enigmar laughed again. "It may seem strange to outsiders, but in our family magic is our life! I too had my first performance in front of a crowd at her age. Of course, all I did were simple card and vanishing tricks, nothing too grand."

Sebastian tilted his head. "If you say so…all I did at her age was watch TV and occasionally get outside." He shrugged.

"Hey! Wanna see a magic trick?" The little girl asked Mr. Wright's secretary with an excited smile.

"Sure, why not?" Sebastian shrugged again and followed Trucy into a corner of the room.

"Well, how do you feel about the trial today?" Mr. Enigmar turned his attention back to his lawyer, who in return tried to look optimistic.

"We'll get through it. Somehow." And that very same optimism left him in a split second. "Incidentally… the prosecutor today is a new guy, I hear."

"Ah, an easy win then yes?" Enigmar smiled enthusiastically.

"They're calling him a "true thoroughbred in the history of the prosecutor's office." Mr. Wright recalled what he overheard the other day. "Of course, there's one of those every year."

Mr. Enigmar crossed his arms and frowned. "The switching of attorneys just before the trial… I know it is a difficult situation I put you in," the magician admitted a bit reluctantly. "But…" Enigmar's expression became determined "allow me to say one thing, Mr. Wright."

"...Yes?" Phoenix asked after a second.

"They will not be able to pronounce me guilty today. So, do your best, but do not worry."

(First time a defendant's ever given me a pep speech…)

"Holy!" The sudden shout got the attention of the two men. Looking over to the other side of the room, they found a giggling little magician holding two cards, one in each hand, and an utterly shocked secretary staring at those cards.

"Okay, I KNOW there's some kinda trick behind this, but for the love of macaroni cheeseburger, I can't figure out what!" The young man exclaimed pointing with his finger in a gun-like fashion at the girl.

"Silly!" the tiny magician giggled. "There is no trick. It's magic!"

"Yeah, sure thing, squirt." Sebastian smiled, shaking his head.

Mr. Enigmar smiled, before once again returning his attention to Mr. Wright, who looked back at his client.

"I'll do what I can," Phoenix promised, to which Enigmar strangely laughed again.

"I see you do not understand. You see, it will be impossible for them to declare a verdict."

"I-Impossible?" Phoenix repeated, completely confused at those words.

"How's that supposed to work?" Sebastian returned with Trucy to the two men. "As far as I know, the only way for them to not declare an official verdict is if you either die during the trial for some reason or you perform some kind of vanishing act, in case things go south." The secretary pointed out, pointing his finger in the gun-like style at the man. "You look quite healthy to me. So what's it gonna be? Smoke bombs? Dazzling grenade? A trap door? Or is the little girl here going to pose as you during the trial?"

Those words were obviously spoken in jest and the little girl did indeed laugh. Mr. Wright allowed a small smirk to appear on his face. However, for some reason, Mr. Enigmar didn't laugh. At least not at first. It took a couple of seconds, but eventually, he too let out full blown laughter.

(My first look at the case was only yesterday.) Phoenix thought to himself. (And the information I was given was a tad bit lacking, to be honest. Still, I'll do what I can. … For their sake.) The attorney looked at the smiling family with a determined expression.

"By the way, Mr. Enigmar," Sebastian spoke up "I hope I'm not trying into anything personally, but why the sudden shift in attorneys? For the record, your previous attorney didn't sound too happy about all of this. My ear is still ringing…" To emphasize his point, Sebastian rubbed his right ear. Phoenix needed to hold his tongue there since this was prying into the personal affairs of his client. And unless you were a lawyer, you usually don't ask about this kind of thing.

"Ah, it's nothing boy. The previous attorney and I had a simple… misunderstanding. Let's leave it at that." The magician's tone indicated he didn't want to talk about this any further.

"Alright," Sebastian shrugged. "Though, you owe me the hospital bill, if my ear falls off in the coming days. Seriously, I was sure our phone was going to explode."

"Hey! This would make for a good magic trick!" the little girl chimed in.

"Haha! I'll think about it, Trucy." Mr. Enigmar replied, revealing the girl's name in the process.

(My client is Shadi Enigmar. Known to the world as Zak Gramarye. A wildly popular magician, star of Troupe Gramarye. His mentor, Magnifi Gramarye, was a rare breed of magician. He single-handedly ushered in a golden age of stage magic… until he was shot dead. And Zak Gramarye is the suspect.)

"I believe the curtains will be lifting any time now," Mr. Enigmar suddenly spoke up. Sebastian looked at his watch and whistled in surprise.

"Wow, time sure flies when you talk to people. Maybe there is something behind this making friends thing," he spoke in a thoughtful tone. "I guess I should try that anytime soon."

The others just gave him a look.

"Well, I'm in your capable hands Mr. Wright," Mr. Enigmar said to Mr. Wright.

XXX

April 19, 9:57 AM

District Court

Courtroom No. 7

Murmurs were going around the gallery as everyone took their respective seats in the courtroom. Mr. Enigmar, of course, was placed on the defendant's chair, while Sebastian took his place right next to Mr. Wright, officially being his legal counsel for this trial. Phoenix himself organized the papers on the table in front of him, before giving his secretary a quick look. Said secretary appeared quite nervous, as he was nervously glancing all around him.

"Are you okay?" Mr. Wright asked gently.

"I kinda feel pretty nervous now," Sebastian admitted. "And I'm not even the defendant or the lawyer here."

"Really? Maybe you want to go to the gallery instead? There's still time." Phoenix pointed out.

"N-no, I'll be fine," Sebastian reassured. "It's just the feeling of everyone looking at me right now. I'm pretty sure I'll feel better once the trial starts and everyone's attention is away from me."

Phoenix glanced around the courtroom and noticed indeed some people were looking at his secretary, but not too many. They probably were just generally curious about his assistant and would forget about him in a matter of minutes.

"Is this guy really wearing sunglasses?" Sebastian asked and nodded towards the prosecutor on the other side of the room.

Phoenix looked over to the prosecutor and noted that the young blonde man was indeed wearing a pair of sunglasses. The lawyer was about to point out that technically his secretary was wearing sunglasses as well, but then he noted that they were already looking like regular glasses.

(Right, within the sunlight, his glasses get a brown color. But outside of it, they return to their normal state relatively quickly. Though, I heard lenses like these are pretty expensive. I wonder how long he needed to save up money to get those?)

"He looks pretty sure of himself. Isn't the dude supposed to be some kinda rockstar?"

"Yes," Mr. Wright confirmed.

"How do you get to be a rock star and at the same time a prosecutor?" the secretary asked. "That makes as much sense a dead spirit possessing a living human."

Phoenix opted to not comment on that. Instead, he looked down on his documents or lack thereof. A tiny sigh escaped his lips. "This is not going to be an easy case. I don't remember when was the last time I worked with so little evidence."

"The prosecution is bound to present some evidence," Sebastian replied. He looked over to his boss with a determined expression. "Guess we'll have to find the contradictions within that evidence and whatever witnesses the guy has prepared."

Phoenix nodded. "Yes, and if I'm lucky, I might be able to squeeze another day out with any luck."

"Welp looks like it's time to put your luck to the test." Sebastian pointed discreetly to the left, where Phoenix could see the Judge walking towards his seat.

"All or nothing," Sebastian mumbled to himself, as the Judge swung his gavel.


End file.
